Monday, February 11, 2008

TV and the Governors race

First things first for this Monday morning. Anyone who has a vote for national player of the year and saw the play in double overtime when Tyler Hansbrough by sheer will picked the ball from a Clemson player, dove for it on the floor, got fouled, and swished two free throws to make it a two possession game and does not vote that boy national player of the year should have their vote taken away.

Now that I'm done disenfranchising stupid sports reporters, on to the North Carolina race for Governor.

Richard Moore and Bev Perdue both went on the air about a month ago. They're running ads in every tv market except Charlotte and Asheville, in both of which you get less bang for your buck because you're talking to a bunch of people in South Carolina. Those markets will no doubt be blessed with campaign ads soon enough.

Someone suggested to me it would make for an interesting post to run the numbers and see the difference in the Governors race between last month and this month just in the parts of the state where ads have been running, to see if those are giving any candidate a discernible advantage.

Bev Perdue had a 16 point lead overall in our poll last month, and this month it's down to 14 points. But she's actually improved her standing in the parts of the state where ads have been running. Last month, before anyone went on the air, she led those areas 43-28. Now she has a 48-30 advantage.

It's not a big difference but it shows she might be getting a little more traction with her ads. We'll have to see it across a couple months to really make any conclusions.